


Living A Life Unlived

by afteriwake



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 02:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amy has to go on with her life after Rory gets taken by the Weeping Angels, and she's so intent on living the life he wanted to live that she forgets to live her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living A Life Unlived

**Author's Note:**

> So I wanted to try and write something that was Doctor Who without crossing it over with another fandom. I'd had an idea for something like this, where "The Angels Take Manhattan" ended differently and Amy _didn't_ get to live out her life with Rory, and then I saw a prompt on **imagineyourotp** the helped inspire this ("Imagine that after Person A's death, Person B throws themselves wholeheartedly into pursuing and trying to complete A's goals and dreams, with no regard for their own well-being"). Hopefully all of you will enjoy this.

She was alone.

The Doctor told her all the reasons why he couldn't go back to New York, all the things that would happen if he tried. She had turned away from the grave, hoping the Weeping Angel would take her as well. But it didn't. Creating the time paradox hadn't been enough to save him. The Weeping Angels only wanted Rory, it seemed, and so now she was alone.

She loved her husband. Back when the Doctor came back into her life she hadn't loved him; in the other version of events, the one where she tried to seduce her friend before she was supposed to marry him, she had cared but she hadn't loved. Not until she had lost him to the crack in the universe. But in this version of events she loved her husband. She had lost him countless times only to get him back again, and that wasn't counting the time she tried to give him up. But things were better, and they were happy again, and now she was alone and it hurt so badly. It was as though there was a void that she couldn't fill. It was as though the other half of her soul was missing.

River had gently pulled the Doctor away to let her be in peace. The pain was threatening to overwhelm her, but she didn't want to go home just yet. Home would have too many memories, too many things to remind her of the future they had planned to have. Home would mean explaining to friends and family that he was dead without telling them the truth. Brian could know the truth, and he deserved to know the truth. But that was a conversation that could keep while she mourned her loss. And she was going to mourn, because Rory was her soulmate and now he was gone and she could never get him back.

She didn't know how long she had been crying in their room before sleep overtook her. All she knew was that when she woke up her head was on someone's lap and they were stroking her hair back. She didn't care much who it was, because the act was comforting. “You're awake,” she heard River say quietly from above her. It was her daughter. River hadn't left, and that made her happy. She was probably grieving too; she had lost her father and would never get to see him again, too. Her daughter at least had an inkling of the pain she was experiencing.

“He's gone, Melody,” she said, her voice hoarse. She must have sobbed for hours and hours, she realized. And yet here she was, crying fresh tears. “He's gone and we can't get him back.”

“I know,” River said soothingly, continuing to stroke her mother's hair back. “I am so sorry, Mum.”

Amy clutched at the skirt of River's dress and buried her face in it. The tears fell again, and she didn't trust herself to speak. And River stayed quiet, just gently stroking her hair back. She needed this. The Doctor, as much as she loved him, would have talked and tried to explain and tried to reassure her. But there was no reassurances he could have given because Rory was never coming back. It would have been empty, hollow. She would have hated him by the end of it. She wasn't sure if she hated him now, to be honest.

Finally the tears subsided again, and she sat up. This time River pulled her into an embrace, and she held onto her daughter tightly. She needed this. She needed what was left of her family. Not her mum and dad; they didn't know the truth and they wouldn't understand. And she couldn't stand to see Brian's face right now, to see him have to accept the loss of his only child. He'd try and be brave for her but she was sure this would break him, just like it broke her. The Doctor had promised he'd take care of both of them, and she would have to break the news to him that he had failed. She wanted to put that day off as long as possible.

She pulled away from her daughter and rested her head in her lap again. “Help me remember him, Melody,” she said, her voice quiet. “Tell me your memories. Remind me that he was really there.”

“I will, Mum,” River said with a slight nod. And then River talked. She recounted everything she could remember from their first encounter, when he was a boy and she was their best mate Mels. She told as many memories as she could until Amy's eyes fluttered closed, her mind swimming with the memories of the boy she had known, the man she had loved. She would remember him, and she would make sure he was never forgotten. She would live the life he wanted to live, and live it in his memory. And she would spend the rest of her life doing it.


End file.
